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The Dispatch wrote
Drexel’s run at managing South Campus Gateway theater to end in March
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
BY MIKE PRAMIK
The theater at South Campus Gateway will be under new management in March when Campus Partners cuts ties with Drexel Theatres Group.
Drexel Gateway, an eight-screen movie theater at the South Campus development near Ohio State University, opened in November 2005 as a combination multiplex and art-movie venue. Operated by Jeff and Kathy Frank, of Drexel and Drexel Grandview fame, the cinema’s goal was to combine first-run blockbusters with independent films.
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Drexel to no longer manage Gateway Theatre
By: The Hegemo
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First the Arena Grand and now the Gateway? That sucks.
Oh crap…when Gateway opened the developers said they initially would seek a more-refined student audience but that they would consider shifting to more of a mass-market focus if necessary…I worry that second plan is kicking in.
More optimistically: Maybe Gateway will expand the theaters into the Sunflower space, and the split with Drexel was necessary to do that?
COLUMBUS – Campus Partners and the Drexel Theatres Group today (2/5) announced that they are ending their agreement under which the cinema company provided management services for the eight-screen theater owned by Campus Partners at South Campus Gateway.
Last spring, Campus Partners opened The Event Space, a 6,400-square-foot extension of the Gateway theater’s conference, meeting and reception facilities. The Event Space has increased the range of opportunities for larger events and catered affairs in conjunction with the theater auditoriums.
“We greatly appreciate the work that Jeff and Kathy Frank of the Drexel Theatres Group and their staff have done over the past four years to prepare for the grand opening of the Gateway theater and to manage its operation and to grow the business in the critical first two years,†said Terry Foegler, president of Campus Partners. “The theater benefited from its association with the Drexel brand.
“While we remain committed to the Gateway cinema as a premier location for first-run films, we believe that the expanded facility also requires us to increasingly focus on comprehensive event and conference planning services in the future,†Foegler said.
“Our Drexel Theatres team was energized by the opportunity to employ our 27 years of movie experience in the Columbus area to the planning, marketing and opening of the Drexel Gateway Theater,†said Jeff Frank, president of the Drexel Theatres Group. “We are very proud of our accomplishments at the Gateway and thoroughly enjoyed working with the university community. We wish Campus Partners and South Campus Gateway well.â€Â
The management agreement will conclude at the end of February. Campus Partners expects to announce a new management structure for the Gateway theater in the near future.
Hmm.
Yep.
Mass market it is. The writing’s on the tea leaves’ entrails, or something like that.
Event Space? Can there really be a need for more conference space with the Blackwell and other campus venues especially considering that Sunflower is leaving? Isn’t that what City Center tried to do when it was dying?
I completely agree with this. It really sucks. I loved having both of those be drexels.
It makes me wonder if the folks at Drexel are doing something wrong. It also makes me wonder what’s going on with the Gateway in general. Seems like lots of changes are happening all at once.
you’d be amazed at all the event space there is on campus. It seems like every new building has spaces designed for hosting conferences/and or events. Besides the obvious Blackwell and Fawcett Center.. RPAC, Knowlton, and the 4H center all have event spaces, and the new Union has a huge amount of meeting space and will also have the second largest ballroom in columbus when its finished. There’s only so many events to go around.
The Event Place at the gateway seems like a quick fix to me, so they could quickly decrease the amount of vacant SF in the complex.
A lot of movie theaters try to market themselves as event spaces as well. Doesn’t mean the theater is going anywhere. But what better room could a CEO think of to present a visonary speech to 300 employees? Seriously, that seems really boring, but movie theaters don’t make any money off your tickets…
this is one of my favorite theaters to see first run pixx.
and not just because they had DIET DR PEPPER on tap.
good thing i never got that drexel theater club membership i always pondered..
I actually agree with this if it helps them focus on continuing to bring good smaller-run movies to the area, even if they don’t make it to the bigger screens in town. God bless them for all that they do.
Agreed, its a good thing.
BMW does this with the Lennox every year and it works very well. There have been Microsoft events there previously too. These kind of venues are really useful!
A nice movie theater works great for “business hours” events like this. It has zero impact on the regular movie goer crowd.
hrm… I just don’t see how an arthouse firm benefits from having less screens to pull in fresh reels, I know drexel east basically gets a good crack at first-runs on major indies… but sometimes I’m waiting until after dvd release to catch an indie at the drexel or hell sometimes even the lennox or easton amc get it first. It’s disappointing when an arthouse firm loses screens for me, it seems it would be harder to convince a distributor with x number of reels that you’re a great ROI when you’re back down to managing 4 screens from 15-20+
just like the arena grand, once drexel isn’t putting flicks into the mill at the gateway i’ll have no reason to go there… which actually pulls my other dollars from the other venues in the gateway as it has from the arena district. the only reason i even go to the arena district now is a hockey game here and there so I went from roughly monthly visits down there to maybe twice a year.
I hink that the Drexel Gateway didn’t attract its intended crowd because the theater space lacked the feel and look of an indie movie house and the surrounding businesses. From my time in SF and DC all the indie movies were shown in older theater houses that exuded a warmth and creativity. I have to admit that when I went and saw Pan’s Labryinth at the Gateway my overall experience was a bit ruined when I walked out and was greeted by Ugly Tuna patrons and their fish bowl drink.
I guess I hadn’t put my finger on it but cmhindependent hit it I think, it wasn’t really the feel of an arthouse place. True there were a few restaurants for pre or post show nights, but they are tempered by ugly tuna and mcfaddens etc. I think older places with character (hopefully w/ some decent seats put in over the years as thats always nice to have) do add to the whole arthouse vibe that some of us probably are looking for as part of the experience. (Cedar lee in cleveland is a good example I think of an indie house with a good vibe). hopefully drexel can regroup and maybe add a few screens somewhere in town but maybe without the glitz and glam of arena & south campus.
i dunno dudes, i saw plenty indie movies in SF theaters that were new spaces, and in nyc.. even the angelika is modern and isnt a far cry from the feel of gateway.
the gateway was trying to rock the big films and the mainstream indies, and i think that is a good thing regardless. the drexels in general could probably do better overall with their programming IMO.
I believe I mentioned the impossibility of Drexel losing $187K last year in the thread about the Gateway last week. It’s really sad to see that both the Drexel and Sunflower had zero staying power on that corner of the development.
I’m very disappointed by this as well. It most likely means less screens for indie films in town, and almost certainly means less state-of-the-art theaters showing said films. I’ll pass on the dark, older “arthouse” feel in favor of big screens, great sound, and stadium seats for watching those films any day of the week.
I’m also assuming this means the 24-hour Sci-Fi Marathon will once again be looking for a new home. Back to the Drexel Grandview probably…? And that’s a major shame…
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
BY MIKE PRAMIK
“By no means are we saying there are not going to be films shown at Gateway as there have been the past 2 1/2 years,” Sterrett said. “We feel that the opportunities for meetings and conferences can be a big part of the business there.
“It will be two years before the (new) Ohio Union is completed, and there clearly is a need for conference and meeting space.”
Frank wouldn’t comment on the viability of an eight-screen theater at the Gateway, but he did note that there are 45 screens within 2 1/2 miles of the theater. He said it’s the busiest zone in central Ohio, and it’s been getting more difficult to secure exclusivity on art films.
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the entire Sunflower operation is shutting down so there isn’t a relationship between their closing the one in the Gateway and it’s profitability.
Posted by Melissa Starker on February 6, 2008
On Tuesday afternoon, Campus Partners announced that it will be ending its business relationship with Drexel Theatres Group at the Gateway Theater at the end of February. According to a Dispatch follow-up, the cinema’s lost 187 grand in the past year but this isn’t the reason for the change. Campus Partners chalks it up to a new concentration on the space’s possibilities as a meeting and event space. The South Campus Gateway developer plans to have new management in place in March.
Three burning questions emerge from this announcement: What happened between Drexel Theatres and Campus Partners that would lead to a public break little more than two years after the theater opened, before a new management plan is in place; will the Gateway continue to present art house titles alongside Hollywood fare; and what does this all mean for Drexel Theatres?
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